Kirk Mitchell is a general assignment reporter at The Denver Post who focuses on criminal justice stories. He began working at the newspaper in 1998, after writing for newspapers in Mesa, Ariz., and Twin Falls, Idaho, and The Associated Press in Salt Lake City. Mitchell first started writing the Cold Case blog in Fall 2007, in part because Colorado has more than 1,400 unsolved homicides.

Denver is on track for one of its biggest elections in years as 66 candidates run for 15 elected positions in city government. But a few challengers have pulled away from the pack, a Denver Post analysis shows.